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eLearning: Sexual, reproductive and mental health

Published 2011

These resources have been developed for you, a busy mental health professional, as an easy-to-use guide to key aspects of sexual and reproductive health in the context of mental illness, with clear sign-posting for those of you who want to take this subject further.

Some people say that sexual health (SH) is as integral to a person’s life and relationships as is mental health (MH). We know only too well, however, how mental illness, sexual violence and abuse, are often side-lined, not least because of prejudice, stigma, misunderstanding and fear.

These elearning resources will help you identify ways in which sexual health matters for the people you work with, as well as assist you to overturn some of the negatives, as you strive to improve their holistic health and well-being.

Click on a title below to open the resource.

CopyrightOpen

All material in these resources, including text, graphics, photographs, video and audio is copyright of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), unless otherwise stated. Use of these resources, and import of the resources into learning management systems for educational purposes, is freely permitted, but commercial use of this learning resource is not authorised unless permission is first obtained from SCIE.

Sexual health matters – for mental health

Explores sexual health and sexuality, sexual risk, sexual violence, abuse and trauma and making a difference in your practice.

Who they are suitable forOpen

Mental health practitioners (primarily MH nursing staff, but also to include other professional disciplines)

They will also be of relevance for:

Other professionals working with people with mental health problems including doctors, social workers, practitioners providing psychological interventions e.g. psychologists, IAPT & counsellors

Voluntary sector workers

Commissioners and managers

People who use services

AuthorsOpen

Dr Kathryn Abel

Kathryn Abel is Professor of Psychological Medicine, Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of the Centre for Women's Mental Health (which she founded in 2001) at the University of Manchester, UK. Since 2001, she has worked to improve gender specific service provision within UK mental health services with the Department of Health. In line with this, since 2003, she has pioneered a community based peer-education programme to improve the reproductive and sexual health for women with serious mental illness: the SHI Process. This service has been developed with service users in non-mental health community settings and in mixed age groups between 15-75 years old. Service users have worked with Dr Abel to develop resources for this service over the years and Dr Abel has engaged women with the Sexual Health Forum in Manchester to develop innovative ways of working with adults with chronic mental illness to improve their overall health. Initially a set of physical resources was created to support the SHI process. However, it is the work of these groups that became the impetus for the development of the current e-learning resource aimed at mental health professionals.

Dr Abel continues to be actively involved with the UK Department of Health in the development of modern, reflective women-centred services for vulnerable women and their families where she is currently helping to develop strategies for the implementation of safer mental health services for women. This work addresses the need of local health providers to have clear policies for managing alleged abuse within services as well as strategies for understanding about the promotion of healthier services and healthier lives for their vulnerable client group.

She is principal investigator on a number of studies and has published widely in leading academic journals on women and mental health, parenting outcomes in serious mental illness, developmental risk factors for serious mental illness and on aspects of service development for women. She was recently elected a member of the prestigious American Psychopathological Association in New York. She currently collaborates with a number of internationally acclaimed institutions including Columbia University, New York and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm where she is nominated for an honorary chair. She and her family live in England in the Peak District National Park.

Lead author on:

Module 2: Managing reproductive health

Module 5: Fertility and pregnancy planning

Module 6: Physical health, mental health and sexuality

Module 7: Genitourinary health

Joint author with David Evans:

Module 8: Unprotected and risky sex

David Evans

Dr David Evans has been facilitating learning in sexual health and HIV studies, to health and social care professionals, since 1990. He has published widely on the subject areas and spoken at numerous conferences at home and abroad. David’s MPhil research focused on the role of social representations of HIV and AIDS in post-registration nurse education; his recent doctoral thesis, taking a broadly Foucauldian approach, explores the gaps between sexual health client need and professional education for nurses in England. The mental health implications of / on sexual health are always a key concern to him. David also runs two e-learning courses in the sexual health degree programmes at the University of Greenwich, including the RCN-approved Sexual Health Skills course (www.gre.ac.uk/schools/health).

Lead author on:

Module 1: Sexual health matters – for mental health

Module 4: Safer relationships and safer sex

Joint author with Dr Kathryn Abel:

Module 8: Unprotected and risky sex

Dr Roxane Davies

Dr. Roxane Agnew-Davies specialises in the psychological impacts of violence, particularly domestic violence, on women's mental health. She is Director of Domestic Violence Training Limited and Mental Health Advisor to Against Violence and Abuse (AVA). She is a Clinical Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She was a specialist advisor to the Victims of Violence and Abuse Prevention Programme in the Department of Health and then a member of the Department of Health Task Force domestic violence group. She has worked with victims of abuse for 25 years. She has an honorary contract with the University of Bristol. She is a Cardiff University accredited Expert Witness.

Lead author on:

Module 3: Supporting people who experience abuse

SCORM Compliant versionOpen

If you are a member of staff from a Higher Education institution who would like to download the activity for use in a virtual learning environment (VLE),such as WebCT, Blackboard or Moodle you should use the SCORM compliant version above.

Please note that this resource was not designed to export any scores or track progress throughout the resource. Therefore, this resource can be imported into a virtual learning environment and freely accessed by users, but there will be no tracking or grading functionality.

AccessibilityOpen

This elearning resource has been designed to be accessible to the widest audience possible and reviewed for compliance to accessibility standards by the Digital Media Access Group at the University of Dundee.

This page lists some of the features used to make the resources easier to use. If you are experiencing problems using the resources, or have any questions and comments about their accessibility, please let us know.

Using the resources without a mouse

All materials have been designed to be accessible using the keyboard. Use the Tab key to access navigational elements such as buttons and interactive diagrams.
Pop-up windows with scroll bars can be accessed with the tab key, with the scroll-bar being operable via the up and down arrow keys.

Changing the appearance of the resources

If you need to adjust the way the resources appear, a Text Only version has been provided for each resource, allowing you to make changes to the resource's appearance through your browser.
For example, you can use your browser to make the text larger, or change the font or colour of the text to suit your personal preferences.
For more help on how to do this, visit the BBC's My Web My Way website

Accessing the resources with a screen reader

All resources have a narration of the main text. However if you use a screen reader, we recommend using the Text Only version for each resource. These provide broadly the same information and experience as the Flash version, but currently the nature of some features of the Flash resources mean that these features do not work as required in a screen reader

AcknowledgementsOpen

SCIE would like to thank the reviewers of these resources – Colin Roberts, Kathy French, Davina James-Hanman and Olivia Protti.

SCIE would also like to thank all who took part in user testing sessions or steering group meetings or who was asked in some way to contribute to or comment on the resources.

Finally SCIE would like to thank Sian Rees (formerly at the Department of Health) and Ben Thomas (DH) for their input.

Technical developmentOpen

Programming and graphic design by Cimex Ltd.

Images and audioOpen

The case studies in this resource use the voices and images of actors. This approach has been adopted to protect the identities of the service users and carers whose accounts have been drawn upon or the accounts have been based on situations indicative of the events or issues being covered.

What do you think?

Please send us your comments and suggestions about 'Sexual, reproductive and mental health elearning'. It will help us to continue to improve our work in the future.